Maryland baseball starter Hunter Parsons was named Big Ten Co-Pitcher of the Week after his two-hit complete-game shutout in Maryland’s 2-0 win Sunday.
Parsons struggled in his sophomore season, and his junior season started with a disastrous eight-run, one-inning start against Tennessee. But Parsons has rebounded to throw four consecutive quality starts, capped by what Vaughn called the best performance of his career, which included a career-best nine strikeouts.
“I don’t even think it’s close,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “He had a decent freshman year. He was pretty good midweek, he had some decent midweek starts. Had a tough year last year, but Hunter needs somebody to believe in him and he’s got that in [pitching coach Corey Muscara.] We sure as heck believe in him. Shoot, that guy doesn’t need to prove anything else to me.”
Parsons forced 13 groundouts in the victory, a testament to the movement on his fastball. Vaughn said that pitch was a large part of why the Cleveland Indians drafted the junior in the 40th round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
His revitalization has coincided with adopting an increased tempo. After the Tennessee start, Muscara told Parsons he was “lollygagging” and looked “lackadaisical.”
Now, Parsons said he tries to take less than 10 seconds to throw the next pitch after getting the ball back. Sunday’s game lasted under two hours and Parsons needed fewer than 10 pitches in three innings.
Over his last four starts, he has a 0.84 ERA and 23 strikeouts to just three walks.
“Just getting back up there, next pitch right away,” Parsons said. “Then a lot of mental game stuff. Being able to say, ‘All right, I just gave up a double but this next guy can’t beat me.’ So, really just trusting my team and then trusting myself.”
